WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Transformers: War for Cybertron -- Earthrise, now streaming on Netflix.
When the first chapter of Transformers: War for Cybertron, Siege, rolled out, the battle was self-contained, keeping the warring Autobots and Decepticons on their homeworld. However, the second chapter in the Netflix trilogy, Earthrise, ventures further into the cosmos as both factions try to find the Allspark, raiding a space-bridge to make the jump to where they think the power source is now lost.
In the process, as Optimus Prime and Megatron continue their lifelong feud, the series brings the franchise's most sinister robots to life but with a unique twist.
An explosion on the Nebulon bridge triggers a rift to open known as the Dead Universe. Here, Optimus gets lost with his Teletraan I arc, but while his soldiers are frozen, his spirit meets Sky Lynx who was trapped there to repent by Optimus' mentor, Alpha Trion. They converse on how to chart a better future, but little does Optimus know Megatron and his Nemesis ark also got sucked in and his enemy's doing the same.
It's Galvatron who comes to meet Megatron, confirming where that confusing shot in the trailer came from. Many suspected the show was going to tackle the bending of space and time, and this turns out to be the case, although it's unclear how or why it happens. All Galvatron does is taunt Megatron, who doesn't know this is his future form. Galvatron makes it clear, however, Optimus is powering up and Megatron needs to do the same. He has to become tougher and more ruthless if he's to survive the war to come, hinting that even after Megatron turns into Galvatron, he'll fail.
Suddenly, Galvatron's sucked back into his reality by a mysterious force, but not before he leaves a golden disk for Megatron to read. He tells him this is the path to victory, but it's unclear if it documents future events so Megatron would be better equipped to read the timeline with his enemies. As he disappears, however, the mystery deepens as another nefarious robot appears: Unicron.
Unicron has always been the franchise's most formidable adversary. He's the brother of Primus, the massive robotic titan who became Cybertron and gave rise to the Autobots and Decepticons. In time, as part of his mission, Unicron would employ many Decepticons without really being part of the faction. Some stories have him as a key influence for their origin story, but his most popular depiction is when he found Megatron's body and turned him into Galvatron in the '80s animated movie. That seems to be the case here as well, as he's found scolding Galvatron in his cameo for a "moment of treachery."
It's possible Galvatron's now putting Megatron on the path to someday toppling Unicron, and while it's unclear if Unicron's beef with Galvatron is taken from the animated film, their designs lean towards that. Unicron looks scary with his fiery eye and massive yellow planet-like frame, so fans are eager to see how he'll factor into the Beast Wars-like Kingdom chapter. Regardless, what's for sure is that the Autobots have a date with destiny, and it seems like Megatron now has the upper hand, even if he doesn't know it yet.
Developed by Rooster Teeth Studios, Transformers: War for Cybertron - Earthrise features the voice talents of Jake Foushee as Optimus Prime, Jason Marnocha as Megatron, Linsay Rousseau as Elita-1, Joe Zieja as Bumblebee, Frank Todaro as Starscream, Rafael Goldstein as Ratchet, Keith Silverstein as Jetfire, Todd Haberkorn as Shockwave & Red Alert, Edward Bosco as Ultra Magnus & Soundwave, Bill Rogers as Wheeljack, Sophia Isabella as Arcee, Brook Chalmers as Impactor, Shawn Hawkins as Mirage, Kaiser Johnson as Ironhide, Miles Luna as Teletraan I & Cliffjumper and Mark Whitten as Sideswipe & Skywarp. The series is now available on Netflix.